Briket Jules Walter yo ap fè chimen.

A greener charcoal


How a team of MIT students will help (profitably) solve Haiti's cooking-fuel crisis.

By Kara Newman
November 28 2007: 2:48 PM EST


Cooking fuel doesn't seem like much to ask for, but an estimated 2.4 billion people worldwide struggle to find it. Consider Haiti, where 700 tons of wood is burned annually, and smoke from thousands of charcoal fires has led to widespread respiratory infections. "Propane is not accessible, and electricity is not affordable," says Haitian native Jules Walter. "These people do not have any alternative."

That's why Walter has started a company called Bagazo to sell low-cost charcoal briquettes made from plant waste to his countrymen. Bagazo is Spanish for "bagasse," or sugar cane waste, but corncobs and banana leaves can also be used in Walter's process.

The waste material is carbonized, mixed with a binder, pressed into briquettes, and allowed to dry. The result burns far cleaner, and for hours longer, than wood.

It costs $3 to make a 44-pound bag of Bagazo briquettes, $2 cheaper than the production cost of regular charcoal. Walter will sell the bags for $5 each - just as soon as he graduates from MIT in 2008.

His company emerged from an MIT class called Development Lab, which encourages students to explore technological solutions for real-life problems. In May it won $30,000 in seed money in an MIT entrepreneurship competition, as well as $7,500 in legal services and a year's worth of office space in a clean energy contest.

Walter, a computer science major, built a team with the experience he lacked. CTO Amy Banzaert, 31, a Ph.D. candidate in mechanical engineering at MIT, did her master's research on optimizing charcoal manufacturing. Tutor and Boston-area activist Gerthy Lahens, 56, became VP of marketing. Sales, operations, and finance will be staffed in Port-au-Prince.

Bagazo is locking in partnerships with local sugar cane suppliers and encouraging them to buy shares in the company. Since electricity is pricey, his team is considering using solar technology to power the carbonization machines.

Walter thinks he's looking at a $125-million-a-year market in Haiti alone but is aiming for a more modest $3.1 million in annual revenue by 2012. If all goes well in Haiti, Bagazo will replicate the concept in other developing countries, such as Kenya and Tanzania. "We want to inspire entrepreneurs," Walter says. "It is possible to do good and make money. You need to believe in how your company can impact the world."



Extrait de CNNMONEY.com

Men youn lan dosye ki merite anpil diskisyon, ankourajman avèk piblysite.

Lot dosye yo se
minn lò, ajan ak kwiv ki lan peyi a
epi
pwojè nikleyè a.

Si twa pwojè sa yo ta kapab avanse, nou ta komanse wè Ayiti ap soti lan mize li ye a.

Pep lan ta jwen travay,
ekonomi a ta pwogrese,
Ayiti ta avanse,
nou ta kraze tout kwi yo,
nou ta ranmase karaktè nou,
demeplè yo ta kite peyi a trankil,
tout sa ki pa kontan ta anbake.

Mesye ann kite politik e ann wè si nou ta kapab pouse 3 pwojè sa yo.

Yo kapab chanje Ayiti.

Can we sing:" Happy days are here again."?If only the politicians will give the country a chance.I am so glad for that young man;here is a man that we can call an "INTELLECTUAL" He uses his intelligence to be useful to his country ,not to complain and wait for the country to give him everything.These are the kind of technocrats that haiti needs; not the so called "intellectual" who cannot write one pargraph without citing a french authors who wrote the classics of french literature in the 18th century.

Why can't we exploit our mines ;why can't we produce electricity with the garbages that are accumulated in our streets as many cities in the United states are doing right now .Why can't we use solar energy in our houses.Instead of studing science po and international relations; our young people should study science in oder to produce the goods and services that our brothers and sisters need.Yes we need physicians , lawyers ,accountants, nurses but we also need more civil , mechanical, electrical,mining,transportation engineers; computer technology graduates .We need good technicians to maintain our nuclear eletrical plant,the power genration stations in our hospitals, electronicians to build and repair our X-ray machines. our coumputers, our refrigerators, our washing machines.our dryers.our tractors and trucks etc.

we need more energy to power our tranmways in order to stop importing cars and trucks that are polutting our air.But in order to realize these improvments we need to stop fighting for the presidency. Let us put our mind together to find the solutions to our problems instead of fighting all the time to be Senators, ambassadors , deputies ,ministers of culture ,ministers of social affairs ,ministers of women affairs. etc.

We need investment bankers ,as the Lehman brothers, where young entrepreneurs like Jules Walter can find the capital they need to launch their companies.I will not hesitate one minute to invest 10000 dollars in his company if he needs my help.There are a lots of haitians who can do the same.Let us put our money where our mouths are.Let us stop crying.God bless the child who has his own, as the song says

I HAVE SET ASIDE THE SAME AMOUNT, AND I AM IN THE PROCESS OF INVESTING IT AS SEED MONEY. THAT SHOULD GIVE ME A SIGNIFICANT SHARE OF THE COMPANY.
I HAVE ASLO GIVEN THEM GOOD IDEAS ABOUT MARKETING AND STRATEGIC LOCATION OF THE COMPANY.
THERE IS THAT LAND BEHIND FORT-DIMANCHE, IT IS VERY CLOSE TO THE MAIN HAITIAN MARKET OF KWABOSAL, AND CLOSE ENOUGH TO SEASHORE AND THE MAIN HAITIAN PORT. THIS STRATEGIC LOCATION WOULD FACILITATE MARINE TRANSPORTATION OF OUR PRODUCTS.
ALSO, AS A PR SLOGAN, WE WILL SHOW THAT OUR PRODUCT IS DEVOID OF CONTINUAL DECAYING CHARCOAL POWERDER WHICH WOULD GENERALLY BLACKEN THE CLOTHES AND FACES OF THE CHARCOAL MERCHANTS.
ALSO, THE PRODUCT CAN BE SOLD IN CLEAR PLASTIC OF DIFFERENT SIZES AND PRICES WHICH WOULD MAKE IT MORE ATTRACTIVE TO RETAILERS FOR THE REASONS STATED ABOVE.
THIS PRODUCT HAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL, IF I COULD AFFORD IT, I WOULD BUY THE ENTIRE COMPANY AND BUILD IT ACCORDING TO MY LIKING.
I AM WONDERING WHETHER THEY CAN USE THE SAME INFRATRUCTURE AT THE OLD HASCO BUILDING IN MODIFIED FORM FOR THE PRODUCTION OF THE PRODUCT. AFTER ALL, THERE ARE MANY SIMILARITIES BETWEEN HASCO AND BAGAZO.

Right on.The CEO of the Company should tell us where we can buy bonds or shares of the Company.I am pleading,begging with Jules to make this an example of what haitians can do if they put their mind and their money together.I am taking the liberty to call you brother Jules ; this is not for you this for the country that we love. make sure your collaborators are people of integrity and honesty. You deserve our praises because you used your intelligence to serve your country's needs.I beg all haitians ,no matter what amount you can invest to invest even 100 dollars in the company.this is for your country.let us look at the young Google entrpreneurs.look at what they have created and what they plan to do in the future to solve our energy problems. ;Jules could be one of them for haiti.

Keen

You are right The Hasco's site is ideal for the production plant ,although I hear that the railroad that the train used to transport the sugar canes no longer exist. I think it is feasible to build a new railroad to transport the sugar cane from Leogane and Plaine du cul de sac over the sea.I was involved in a similar project when the city of new York was renovating yankee Stadium in the seventies; a small company buildt a railroad along the coast of the borough of bronx.My role was an eletrical technician coordinator for Con Edison.It doesn't take a lot of people to build that railroad.I think we can do the same along the coast of the island.That railroad could serve a double purposes.

As far as investing in the Company I do not care even if I loose my money ;I want to invest in this company to show haitians how to build the companies that we need. It is not "space science.";we only need honest Ceo, good financial officers and investment bankers .let us stop talking ;let us put our money where our mouth is.We cmplain too much about foreigners who control our economy;let us do something about it ,instead of crying like children.

Mesye,
Mwen byen kontan wè kijan nou enterese lan pwojè BAGAZO a.
Mwen te finn preske dekouraje ak nèg sou forom saa ki pito ap pedi tan ak demeplè lan vye politik mawon ak kodenn kravate e la tryie.

Se ak pwojè konsa nou kapab ede peyi a vre.

Men sa yo di sou sit entènèt yo, pou moun ki ta vle ede.
http://bagazocharcoal.com/get_involved.htm

Gen pwen de kontak tou si nou vle plis enfòmasyon.

Si plan saa reyisi an Ayiti, konpanyi saa ka vann brikèt yo lan tout Karayib la ak Amerik di sid.

Sa ta fè anpil biznis pou Ayiti avèk de milye anplwaye avèk de milyion dola benefis.

Nou kapab si nou vle:

Si se puede .Mwen sot kontakte konpayi yan map tann repons yo .map menm travay kom voluntè nan kominite kote map viv la pou tout ayisyen achte aktyon nan konpayi saa.Mwen di w mèsi anpil.mwen wè foto Jules ,jenn gason ki ap mennen .Mwen genyen yon pitit gason mwen ki genyen menm degre yo tou(B.S electrical engineering. M.S. Business adminstration and B"S in computer science from Columbia. . Si konpayi sa ta pran pitit gason m saa ka ede .byen ke li ap byen mennen tou.